Four tourists from Britain and two from Australia were among seven people killed when a helicopter crashed on a picturesque New Zealand glacier, police said.
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Seven people – including pilot Mitch Gameren, two Australians and four British nationals – died in the crash of the Alpine Adventures tourist flight shortly before 11am yesterday.
The names of the Australians and British on board have not been formally identified, with police working with the High Commissions to notify the tourists’ families.
He said the operation had to be taken slowly to avoid danger to rescue teams.
Emergency services gather at the Fox Glacier Emergency Services Centre.
“We have winched staff down to the crash scene and recovered a few bodies, then the weather closed in, we have not started the disaster victim identification scene examination yet”.
The 13km long Fox Glacier valley where a helicopter crashed on Saturday killing a local pilot and six tourists draws visitors from around the world. “Our thoughts are with the victims’ families at this hard time”, police said.
Rescuers reached the scene in the afternoon, but crevasses and rugged terrain hampered their efforts.
Grey District Council mayor Tony Kokshoorn told NZ Newswire it’s windy on the West Coast on Sunday and it rained overnight.
Mr Kokshoorn said he hoped authorities completed a thorough investigation into the latest crash to ensure that the industry is safe and that tourists could have confidence that operators would make the right call in bad conditions.
RNZ’s reporter in Fox Glacier said the town was full of police, military and civilian teams all waiting for one thing – a break in the weather so they could begin the recovery operation.
“The focus at the moment is on friends, the family of the loved ones who’ve unfortunately lost their lives in this tragedy”.
Three people were hurt in a helicopter crash in June, while a man died and five others were injured past year.
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A Foreign Office spokesman said: “It is with regret we can confirm the deaths, in a helicopter crash in New Zealand on November 21, of Andrew Virco and his partner Katharine Walker, from Cambridge, and Nigel Charlton and his wife Cynthia from Hampshire”.
